Happy New Year from me

[inparadise]

@flyerboys

However, for living in a place, you want to actually be able to personally speak person to person with friends and neighbors.

People can make themselves understood most times. Hard to fail to understand a policeman pointing a machine gun at you and doing a sweeping gesture down the road, shouting “FAHRENZIE,!” even if you don’t understand German. Faking the dumb American doesn’t always work. We were free camping by the side of the rural road in Yugoslavia at the time and even the USA sign in the back didn’t keep them from thinking we were German.

The only other time we were kicked out of a free camping site that year was when we tried to overnight in a stunning public parking lot in Monaco, where there is no parking after midnight. When we tried the “I don’t speak French” routine, the polite, machine gun free policeman broke into perfect English and gave us directions to France, where we could camp where we wished. The next day we woke up to front row seats to an international hang gliding competition.

Is it any wonder I prefer not to stay at boring hotels?

IP

Edit: Trying to reply to you again, I got a why not message him instead? Sent a test case. Not sure how it works, so here is the gist of the message, since you may never receive:

@flyerboys

Absurdly, when husband and I go to visit friends in Quebec we never speak a word of English but only Spanish and scatterings of polite French, especially in nice shops and local restaurants. We almost instantly get a particularly warm welcome and careful attentive care…and then delighted laughter when we confess that we are USAians and can speak English but prefer not to…

I get that. There were times I pretended not to be American as well. In France/Italy/Spain/ I was never taken for a native, but also never as an American, always thinking I was either French or Spanish, depending on which country I was not in.

@flyerboys

Our home of 8 years, San Miguel de Allende in the state Guanajuato, besides being of modest size, beautiful, and historically interesting, is one of the largest USAian ex-pat communities in the world.

My parents visited San Miguel de Allende and loved it. It is on my list, but I wasn’t sure where you lived. Why are you moving? Leaving the area or simply going more rural?

In the 3 months my parents were in Mexico, (more language lessons for 2 professionals in foreign language education,) Mom had to have emergency gall bladder surgery. They said it was a great experience, (as far as that can be,) and never had such an easy time getting BCBS to pay that bill. Was insanely cheaper than what it would have been in the US.

IP,
who apologized more than once for her fellow countryman’s rudeness

[flyerboys]

@inparadise

People can make themselves understood most times.

Yes! And in personal relationships (your next door neighbor, the nice old man weighing vegetables at the little grocery you mostly use) actually talking words you know coordinating facial expression and tonation of voice makes it human rather than merely transactional. Nothing can replace actual language capability.

We are not leaving for quite awhile, another 10 years or so, as we are both fully engaged here, me doing reforestation and tutoring in multivariate vector calculus, and husband literally indispensable for this NGO for another few years

Home - Jóvenes Adelante A.C.

We live in what was rural countryside (campo) when we bought 10 years ago, but is now been swallowed up by suburbs and streetlights. I used to be able to see the Milky Way even on full moon nights, but not anymore. And I miss the foxes that used to play under my mesquites and the fireflies and the silence. No whining, because the urban expansion was exactly my investment plan. The house and the six acres of land we own around it has now increased in value multiple times.

But when I get significantly older I want my fireflies back, and where we have just bought, on Oaxacan forested coastal cliffs, I will have dark night stars, fireflies, the sound of ocean waves and an occasional jaguar cry.

david fb

[inparadise]

@flyerboys

But when I get significantly older I want my fireflies back, and where we have just bought, on Oaxacan forested coastal cliffs, I will have dark night stars, fireflies, the sound of ocean waves and an occasional jaguar cry.

That sounds spectacular! What about healthcare?

IP

[steve203]

@inparadise

Hard to fail to understand a policeman pointing a machine gun at you and doing a sweeping gesture down the road, shouting “FAHRENZIE,!” even if you don’t understand German.

OK, I tried to look up “fahrenzie”, but Google did not understand. “Raus! schnell” I understand just fine.

Steve

[inparadise]

@steve203

“fahrenzie”

Basically, you go. Leave. Probably 2 words, but heck, it’s been over 40 years since I’ve had anything to do with the German language. Then again, there was no mistaking the gesticulation with the gun. The police wanted us back on the road, and we were not going to play dumb past a certain point.

IP

[MarkR]

Probably “fahren zie” … “drive here”. Or maybe “fahren sie” … “you drive”. Could be there was a first word of “nicht”?

(as an aside, it wasn’t a “machine gun”, those are generally way too heavy for a person to carry in their hands. Much more likely that it was an assault rifle.)

[inparadise]

@MarkR

(as an aside, it wasn’t a “machine gun”, those are generally way too heavy for a person to carry in their hands. Much more likely that it was an assault rifle.)

LOL. Seemed HUGE to me!

IP,
not a pro about guns